Wall Street Journal: “North Korea pulled back its threat to attack a U.S. territory, after days of trading increasingly bellicose rhetoric with U.S. President Donald Trump, and hours after China took its toughest steps against Pyongyang to support U.N. sanctions.”
Here’s the thing: Trump et al will tout this as success. But this looks to me like it’s more about China playing Trump for the fool, buying time for North Korea to back down for a while until we’re not paying attention and then get back to business as usual becoming a nuclear state. Agreeing not to bomb Guam is a laughable concession, not something ever intended in the first place. So it’s back to status quo, advantage North Korea (and China). Trump couldn’t handle Atlantic City. Why should we expect him to navigate the Pacific?
new York times:
North Korea Says It Will Wait ‘a Little More’ Before Acting on Guam Threat
查看简体中文版
查看繁體中文版
By CHOE SANG-HUNAUG. 15, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appeared on Tuesday to pause its threat to launch ballistic missiles toward Guam, saying it would wait to assess “the foolish and stupid conduct” of the United States before carrying the launchings out.
The statement came as the United States and South Korea were preparing to conduct joint military exercises on the Korean Peninsula and surrounding waters starting on Monday, despite North Korea’s vehement opposition to such drills.
In response to threats from President Trump, North Korea’s military announced last week that by mid-August, it would submit a plan to Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, for launching four ballistic missiles into waters around Guam, the United States territory that is home to American military bases.
On Monday, Mr. Kim reviewed the plan while visiting the command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army but said he would wait a bit before telling the military to proceed with the missile launchings, the state news media reported on Tuesday.
“He said that the U.S. imperialists caught the noose around their necks due to their reckless military confrontation racket, adding that they would watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees,” said the report from the Korean Central News Agency.
Mr. Kim’s decision to wait “a little more” before ordering the launchings represented a slight ratcheting down of tensions and came after some of Mr. Trump’s top aides on Monday tried to tamp down fears of a clash after his threat to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea.
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, on Tuesday offered an unusually blunt rebuke to the Trump administration’s discussions of possible military responses to the North, saying no country should take military action on the Korean Peninsula without his government’s approval.
“It’s only South Korea that can decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Moon said during a nationally televised speech marking National Liberation Day, which celebrates the end of Japanese colonial rule of Korea at the end of World War II. “No one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Korean agreement.”
South Koreans have grown increasingly concerned in recent days about a possible military conflict following Mr. Trump’s threats against the North.
As the exchange of combative rhetoric intensified between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim, Mr. Moon and his office have issued a steady stream of statements opposing any armed conflict on the peninsula.
Although Mr. Moon’s latest statement did not mention Mr. Trump by name, it marked his strongest expression of disapproval of military options being considered by Washington.
[…story continues…]
an AAUGH! alert
don’t let the wink, smile and new hairdo fool you, folks.
patD- That’s just about perfect.
craig – Donny doesn’t get it, but ‘his’ Generals surely do.
In the meantime, here’s hoping Lil’ Kim finally eats so much he pops like the world’s little ass zit that he is, in a Pythonesque fashion.
The kind of man the Greeks & Romans feared.
The Vulgar Manliness of Donald Trump
The Founders made a constitutional democracy with, among other things, an electoral college, of which Trump took full advantage, that was meant to keep people like him from ever winning office. Well, every human institution for good can be abused for ill.
I said it last week and I’ll say it again… this tit for tat between SFB and Kim is nothing more than a little boys pissing contest.
drip, drip, drip
wapo: Trump campaign emails show aide’s repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings
https://youtu.be/8hqFHxxAEkY
Fresh off of choking during the Obamacare fiasco, and having a mouth full to big to swallow in the wake of Charlotsville, the president can add another gag moment to his list of chokes. He chewed and slobbered, while China got results. Failing on yet another front to Make America great again.
Hillary was right when she said he choked in Mexico. He hasen’t stopped choking since.
Choker In Chief.
I agree with Renee about the public part of this.
But behind the scenes China has been a major contributor to the advances NK is making and may have been encouraging Kim’s behavior. Now they have cracked down and Kim is falling into line. They didn’t do it for free and we can only guess at what Trump gave up.
Favorable trade policy is a given, tacit acceptance of China’sSouth China sea claims? I suspect Trump sold out the little nations with claims to that area.
Jack
OK, you guys know I’m a lawyer and that our practice is a family law practice. I notice odd things that have a relationship to what we do, and Mrs. P and I laugh about them. Tragically, a guy I knew through LP’s early soccer career died in an auto accident yesterday. The following (last name changed to protect the innocent) appeared in our local obit column today.
I can’t imagine that Mrs. P would ever write such an obit for me.
A beautiful morning glory to the trail. The head nork’s favorite movie is I’m gonna get you sucka! trump is being played in the Pacific basin by every country and even Australia mocks and laughs at him. If trump were serious about the situation? He would appoint an ambassador to S. Korea.
Meanwhile, the commander-in-thief is heading to trump tower for meetings? Fund raisers or with cleaning-up the tower, the digital and analog finger prints? Or is king baby headed to his own bed to suck on his thumb in a fetal position? Although congress mandated tens of millions of dollars in May to wire and update trump tower, trump is blocking them. They were booted from trash tower. Just a curious move back to NY from a man who sends twitter signals to his nazi base that lets them know that although he did the teleprompter thing about race, etc., he really did it to fool the majority…he IS with the alt-right. The same as when he said Obama was born in this country, period. His followers ‘saw’ right through it!
OhPogo,
Too funny, that is an obit for the ages!
Thanks for sharing.?
SFB got what he wanted out of word salad attacking NK, a few hours away from Russia, Putin and the KGB/FSB/SVR/GRU investigation being in the top fold.
I am looking forward to what happens with the soon to be impending economic doom if he does not get the debt ceiling fixed. Lurching from hourly SFB crises to monthly issues with the Congress and immediately back to his dictator wannabe life is strenuous. You have to thank reporters for trying to keep track of the mess.
fact checking pompeo…more distortions from trump’s gang and even when mueller finally gets trump’s family and put the ‘bracelets’ on them? We will be stuck with trump’s judicial and departmental appointments…will we be able to ‘extract the trump’ from our institutions?
We all need a Trump extraction — I wonder what would do that
a national spirit cleansing– what do we have to do to rid ourselves of the PG stink
Texas A & M cancels the white lives matters event. What made them think it was a good idea in the first place
And Bink you have opened the door to some great discussions – you should be proud of yourself.
Pogo
Long standing rule to follow: “Never get involved with a married man unless you have his wife’s permission.” I guess the obit crowd were just unusually agreeable.
Of course Mrs. Pogo wouldn’t write that about you unless she was the cause of your demise …
Nazis are coming to San Francisco on August 26 and are applying for a permit for a “Patriot Prayer” rally at Crissy Field. Call these National Park Service officials to let them know racism and hate speech shouldn’t get a platform in our public parks – especially as “Summer of Love” permits were denied as ” too dangerous “George Durgerian, Special Events & Beach Fires
(415) 561-4302
Melinda Moses, Large Events north of Golden Gate Bridge
(415) 561-4301 / cell- 415- 781-9390
Katie Beltrano, Outdoor Ceremonies, Small Picnics
(415) 561-4373
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND HELP PREVENT HATE FROM COMING TO SF!!!
.
The US has been cut out of trade in the Pacific basin. Now we just look stooopid
Carl Bernstein was fired up on CNN last night talking about his anonymous sources on Trump’s case: “I’ve never ever in 50 years heard people talk about” a president unfit to serve “as members of Congress, the military, intelligence community are doing now.”
The Deep State is coming
Yes, I’m on-edge, and frustrated, because what happened in Charlottesville could easily happen in my community- I would not be surprised, at all, if later today, or tomorrow,or the day after that, armed para-military racial-supremacists began patrolling the streets of my town with the intent of suppressing dissent and intimidating residents (of any demographic) to conform to their standard of public conduct.
These same types of people engaged in intimidation tactics during the 2016 presidential campaign, aggressively driving over-sized trucks emblazoned with pro-Trump slogans, NRA-affiliation stickers, and large American flags that now, to my perception, are visually congruous to the Nazi swastika on a red field. They’ve been stockpiling guns and ammo for at least a decade, and guess who’s statistically most likely to get shot by them? Well, them actually, and then me, the local loud-mouthed liberal.
So, you might consider that I’m arguing from a selfish perspective, as I really don’t want to be murdered. I also have a family, though, and I don’t want them to have to be obliged to deftly navigate an Orwellian dystopian society just to make it from their bed in the morning, safely back to their bed at night, while contemplating their strategy to remain safe from harm the next day, when they have to wake up and do it all again. That’s a real shitty way to live- it’s the way a bullied child must conduct oneself, and it will be the reality for many of us, adult and child alike, very soon, unless cooler heads prevail, and I’m having a hard time identifying the cooler heads, hence the frustration.
As for the practice of appealling to the concerns of “white” social groups, doing so perpetuates the myth that “white” people are an oppressed class in American society with legitimate grievances due to that distinction, when that is obviously not the case. No one is prevented from obtaining a job, or excluded from housing, or generally impeded on their life and career trajectories in American society because they are “white”, and to entertain such notions with sincerity gives credence to an intentionally-divisive canard, meant to bifurcate people of lower socio-economic classes and turn them against each other.
I’m not an academian- just a product of a racist culture trying to transcend its indoctrination. You would be better served if more learned and eloquent voices were making these arguments, here, instead of me, but they’re not, so I try, poorly.
why didn’t media make more of the marchers shouting “hail trump” and hold him personally responsible for not quelling the display starting Friday night? were they afraid of not being “fair and balanced”?
btw, that clip will be useful for future dem ads.
something to think about … a friend of mine who lives near Chancellorsville thinks the city and police backed off doing things like blocking streets or adequately separating warring groups out of anger at this federal judge’s order in favor of an ACLU lawsuit to force the city to allow the protest in Emancipation Park
Well done Bink
For most people whose primary role in Democracy has been to vote and complain this is a new world where courage and standing out is required.
Sadly I don’t think your view is either inaccurate or unique. I think a lot of people go to bed at night and are scared for the future. I hope they are doing what you are. Talking to whom ever you can whenever you can.
Your voice is the same as many others when you speak you give them courage to speak.
Bink, I think you get your points across loud and clear. Keep ’em coming.
craig, last thread you posted a scary commentary of strange happenings in your neighborhood:
Here at TM headquarters 1.2 miles from White House we are hearing a barrage of really noisy military helicopters. Never a good sign.
this is really unusual. Army helicopters filling the sky.
FBI agents in vests with nasty looking rifles in our alley.
….I did that Sturg and they weren’t appreciative or responsive. Men in FBI vests with assault rifles are not to be messed with. Anyway they have now left. Scary stuff.
ever hear what was going on? stuff awry at nearby embassies perchance? anyone else notice and complain/inquire about it?
Excellent post, Bink. I can identify with your observations. I used to tell my students, we lived mostly in small towns in rural northwest and Northern California, that when the right wing coup takes over I and my fellow liberals would be the first ones shot at dawn. I wasn’t being hyperbolic as I would use the example of El Salvador where half of the nation’s teachers were murdered by the junta. The number one occupation on Joseph McCarthy’s unamerican list was political scientists.
Don’t ever apologize for your articulate writing. Writing with passion is always more important than all other forms of writing. Well done, sir.
Does anyone know what this sign is for
I don’t have a clue.
just talked to a couple of neighbors, and this is really crazy. A few doors down we have an unoccupied embassy building owned by the Republic of the Congo. All a neighbor got out of the authorities was that someone, possibly just a vagrant, had broken in and was inside. Seemed like a lot of show of force if that’s all it was. Never helps to have a genocider nation in the hood.
crackers – Bicycles this way?
craig – Maybe it was just pidgeons.
Carl Sagan in 1996. He may have been a time traveler. Click to enlarge to read.
Horace Smith’s “Ozymandias”
In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
“I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone,
“The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
“The wonders of my hand.”— The City’s gone,—
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder,—and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
When thinking of someone such as der Fuehrer or others of his ilk, I am comforted by Shelley’s Ozymandias. A different version of the same pharaoh’s discovery was written by Shelley’s friend Horace Smith. Both individuals come to the same conclusion–greatness built upon the backs and lives of others is most certainly illusory.
Perhaps we should make presentation copies of both versions for presentation to the Trump…followed by notice of his impending impeachment. And Bink can prepare a sonnet to be studied by school-goers as part of their revitalized civics studies.
Ha BID, I’d be all in favor of the FBI machine-gunning these damn pigeons.
The nazis will never take any of us alive!
trump has destroyed the state department and now the justice department which is headed by a guy that met with the russians during the prez’s campaign. sessions can’t be trusted….but he is more trustworthy than trump? Very few are untouched by this corrupt administration. Top headline today on Huffpo involves yet another nepotic nazi couple in the WH….the gorkas! mrs. gorka has unfunded any homeland security programs against hate groups like her prez’s base. Yet, we have no one heading Homeland Security since kelly’s departure. trump is also leaving us vulnerable to attack both at home and abroad.
KGC
It is apparently a direction sign for the Pendulum at a museum in Canada. Found it on the website of a Finnish Museum art director being tourist in Ottawa. https://twitter.com/suom1nen?lang=en
ok thanks how did you do that and direction to what or where?
ok I got the pendulum part duh. but how did you do the search?
Transcription of Jamie’s image of book-page, above:
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
-Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World”; 1996
“greatness built upon the backs and lives of others is most certainly illusory.”
-Flatus
Thank You Bink.
…we read each day about the horrors of drug abuse, the murder of policemen, the involvement of our own government in drug running, and so on. We are all aware that organized crime has never been richer, nor the society more demoralized. What is the solution? I would repeal every prohibition against the sale and use of drugs, because it is these prohibitions that have caused the national corruption, not to mention most of the addiction. Since the American memory has a span of about three days, I will remind you that in 1919 alcohol was prohibited in the United States. In 1933 Prohibition was repealed because not only had organized crime expanded enormously, but so had alcoholism. What did not work then does not work now. But we never learn, which is part of our national charm. Repeal would mean that there is no money for anyone in selling drugs. That’s the end of the playground pusher. That’s the end of organized crime, which has already diversified and is doing very nicely in banking, films, and dry cleaning. Eventually, repeal will mean the end of mass drug addiction. As there will always be alcoholics, there will always be drug addicts, but not to today’s extent. It will be safe to walk the streets because the poor will not rob you to pay for their habit.
Gore Vidal, 1988
although sessions recused himself from the russian investigation, he is going after anti-trump supporters.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vHI9BTpGkp8
Leonard again.
I like Leonard best when Jennifer Warnes is singing backup, but I’ll take whatever Len has to give……
Remember to write to your republican congress humans…I have written to steve pearce several times about trump and the alt right and he is listening as he wants to be gov. of NM He no longer supports trumps border wall. I hope the congress is getting an earful about this hostile takeover by trump.
not to be a party pooper and play down the horrors du jour, but in the late 50s-early 60s there were dirty air/toxic water and fascists aka mccarthism and world war iii and American dumb dumbs and kkk racists and stupid politicians and voter suppression. the only difference now to then = more, too many more, people…
as the song says “when will we ever learn”
KGC
I clicked on the image and had it post to a new tab to enlarge and then clicked on that image and selected “image search”. Google brought up a few look alike. From then on it was just running through the logical possibilities.
Every once in a while it pays off to having worked as a researcher for 40 years without benefit of Google … lol
Patd
Basically the world is about 15% saints and 15% hideous sinners. The rest of us just shuffle along up and down the spectrum. Unfortunately, there is a big difference between 15% of 2.5 billion and 15% of 7.5 billion. It doesn’t take long with 24/7 broadcasting of the evils that exist to make you feel outnumbered or that they are gaining on the good guys.
Thanks Jaime that’s great.
So I learned two new things today how to image search on google and that’s good. Yeah Jamie
and 2) At least 35 Confederate monuments were put up after 2000. WTF
Graven Images
the Lee statue in Charlottesville wasn’t built until the 1920’s. Most of this confederate flag and paraphernalia crap first took off in the 1960’s in response to the civil rights movement, all you need to know about it’s racist meaning
sturge, yep
Graven Images for craven imbeciles
We got one in Charleston…..John C. Calhoun his own self waaaaay up yonder on a column, or coll-yume as they say it over on Wadmalaw……….next to the holocaust memorial, which I didn’t guite “get” that time I saw it. (It’s downtown).
So there’s gonna be a rhubarb about old John C.
oy
A very useful new word for an interesting concept if you can figure out how to pronounce it:
Mamihlapinatapai
and “under god” was thrown into the pledge in 1954 along with having to pray in school, at football games and making sure you have a flag flying on your lapel as the years went by. the pendulum seems to swing every fifty some years
Pretty comprehensive history of the KKK
witch burning comes next
Starting around 1960, the one hundred year anniversary of the Civil War was being celebrated. There was a great interest in North vs South, families fighting themselves, confederates and the secessionist south. Television shows and movies were made and watched. As all the old rules were being destroyed by statute and case law, those wanting to keep segregation alive fought hard. Then Nixon incorporated the “Southern Strategy” to bring those racists into the republican party.
In the same way that donnyjr is probably an accidental traitor, I’m concerned his father will accidentally start a war while pissing on the wrong wire.
So the president of Walmart is criticizing PG for equating the Nazi et al with the counter demonstrators
Who knew the breaking point for corporate goopers and corporate America would be public support for white supremacy.
This would be a good time to put a lot of pressure on Trump to step up his anti KKK etc speech. I guess there is pressure on getting rid of Bannon That’s symbolic sort of. I think he has to make a speech to the nation saying white nationalists are allowed their opinions but they are unamerican views and are offensive to real Americans.
Craig, I saw the rise of confederacy nonsense in AL during the Johnson (and Wallace) years. I remember the “save your confederate money; the South will rise again” nonsense. Confederate flags made their appearance then. I hoped that stuff had fizzled out. I also hoped to win the lottery and retire last week. Oh well.
SFB is doing a presser. He’s talking out his ass and sounds like the idiot he is.
34% and falling…
Worst presser pf SFB’s admin so far. He did what my mom warned me about – opened his mouth and removed all doubt about whether he’s an idiot.
Good God!!! I don’t know what that was but it reached a new depth of sludge and should probably be followed by a letter of resignation.
From now on he is 45. Mr. President is way too honorable an address for this piece of garbage currently holding the job.
politico:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his initial reaction to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying there is blame on “both sides,” while asking why the “alt-left” isn’t also being held accountable for the violent clashes.
“You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch,” the president told reporters from the lobby of Trump Tower. “I think there’s blame on both sides.”
Asked about violence from the so-called “alt-right” that had occurred, Trump responded, “What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right?” He then asked, “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”
I feel like trump just wiped his ample butt on the entirety of decent America.
Write to your repug congressman, let them know it is time to dump trump as they can’t hide from this.
This is how a real leader writes a Twitter thread on an important subject
Bernie and Sid Show retweeted
Variety
@Variety
56m
.@FoxNews host @EboniKWilliams calls out Trump for his “cowardly and dangerous” response to Charlottesville bit.ly/2uM1Mc9 pic.twitter.com/pTKnepSz4Y
trump think :
That crazy 32 year old Mexican-lover jus’ up and walloped thah poor nazi kid’s car with her n*gg*r-l*v*ng body ! Looked tuh me like she dun it apurpose.
So, all sides ahta blame.
Trump walks back his walk back.. https://t.co/56oRKaW9ew
Try the words usurper and junta. They fit quit well. Although you may prefer the prefix russian in front of those words. As in, The russian usurper claimed today that the murder victim had it coming.
Now we know for sure. When Trump reads a teleprompter he doesn’t believe a word of it. Nor should we.
I love Mr Bink’s passion.
I also believe there are many transnational and transgenerational links between the naziism of hitler and the naziism of dick spenser. The only things new are, descendants of Slavs are no longer considered sub-human, and Romany are ignored. For practical purposes, the new naziism is the old naziism, only it hasn’t surrendered. They should be treated as adherents to an enemy organization. The leaders of this and other white terrorist (nazi) organizations whose members commit such outrages should be tried under the Nuremberg Rules, and if found guilty, hanged.
We can’t believe anything he sez, TelePrompTer or not, until history tells us his actions are consistent with his words. Unfortunately those actions will likely reflect his most despicable words – or deplorable if you prefer.
I’d feel better if Trump was a drinker & we could write off today’s bizarre presser as ‘Oh he was just drunk’ — scarier that he was sober.
Non-drinker doesn’t mean non- drugger
The SFB family twig is kkk and white supremacist, the squirrel turd did not fall from the tree, he oozes down the damned thing. The stench from him is reaching into the Congress. Notice that only a couple of Dems even bothered speaking up. The whole of them are leaving him out to dry. Next set of polls which show him at thirty percent or lower will bring the knives out of the robes. et tu Ryan?
Valium
? and cocaine ?
Hopefully this shows up:
https://twitter.com/MattBors/status/897557142638645248
https://twitter.com/MattBors/status/897557142638645248
tip bob e. lee over and build a monument right on top of him : The Martyrs of Charlottesville
NEW THREAD